Modern face lifting techniques have improved the quality of results while decreasing overall downtime. A facelift helps rejuvenate the lower third of a patient’s face and helps get rid of the “turkey neck” and jowl. Most patients feel and look good within a week and are often times ready to go “out on the town” in as little as two weeks. Patients who have early facial aging, typically in their forties and early fifties, may benefit from a mini facelift procedure that Dr. Chasan has developed known as the “Petit Lift”. This mini facelift is a less invasive plastic surgery procedure and the benefits are great.

What is a Petit or Mini Facelift?

The Petit Lift, or lower face lift, is a modified form of a traditional facelift procedure that requires less dissection and is often accompanied by liposuction and fat transfer. Patients who desire a youthful facial appearance that are not ready for a full facelift will see great benefit from this facial plastic surgery procedure. It still requires that same amount of artistry and is also long lasting, but the recovery time is much less. Candidates for a Petit Lift are based on an individual’s facial anatomy. There are certain cases in which certain facial anatomies are not suited for a mini facelift. That is not to say however, that a full facelift is out of the question. Much like any other surgery, cosmetic or otherwise, it is good to have adequate research and information before making a decision as important as a facelift procedure. A consultation with Dr. Chasan will determine if either a Petit Lift or a traditional facelift procedure is appropriate for you. Dr. Paul Chasan has extensive experience in performing facelift surgeries and has been doing them for over two decades. In fact, he is one of the most in-demand plastic surgeons in the San Diego area. His experienced hand will help all those who are looking to bring back some of that youthful vibrancy. Depending on how you have lived your life (exposure to sun, smoking, and diet and exercise, to name a few) a facelift might make you look up to 15 years younger. In addition to Dr. Paul Chasan’s experience, you also get his friendly and cheery personality that helps melt any doubts or fears away. His explanations of the procedures help patients feel comfortable enough to take the final steps to get a facelift.

Facelift and Petit Facelift Before and After Photos

Results and Effects of a Facelift

It is a common misconception that facelift procedures are performed on the skin – however, this is not true of expert plastic surgeons. Dr. Chasan operates with a careful eye for detail, working with his patients’ deep facial tissues, which affect the skin’s appearance. Sagging skin and excess fat may also be removed, that can make the patient appear to be years younger. A facelift from Ranch and Coast Plastic Surgery “turns back the clock” so to speak, helping patients look ten to sometimes even fifteen years younger depending on their circumstances.

How soon will I recover from a facelift?

The facelift procedure performed by Dr. Chasan at Ranch and Coast Plastic Surgery is a surgical procedure. His staff reviews the recovery information prior to surgery so there’s less anticipation and puts the patients at ease. Any potential side effects, such as swelling or bruising (which are common), will diminish over the course of a few days. The patient can then return to their normal routine while enjoying a rejuvenated facial appearance. Only a personal consultation with Dr. Chasan can reveal your candidacy for a facelift or Petit Lift treatment. Call our office today to set up an appointment .

Schedule a Consultation

Have any questions or wish to schedule a consult? Click the link below to contact our office today.

Dr. Chasan Discusses Facelift Choices on The Wellness Hour

Interviewer: Facelifting, big part of what you do.

Dr. Chasan: Yeah.

Interviewer: At what point does somebody need a facelift?

Dr. Chasan: Well, I’m gonna put facelift as one of my many tools for facial rejuvenation, okay? And a facelift, people make that mistake of facelift versus a full facelift. A facelift is really a neck and jaw lift, very reliable and reproducible, remove the gel and the turkey neck, okay? So that’s what a facelift does. It does this part of the face, the lower third. And, you know, when I first started practicing, I kind of had one facelift. And now, over all these years, I’ve been in practice 20 years, I have like five different facelifts. So I try to match that facelift with the patient’s anatomy.

So I would say I do a lot of mini-facelifts. We call it “the petite lift.” And the difference between a mini-facelift and, you know, a very aggressive facelift is dissection, how much skin you undermine. In a mini-facelift, it would be less. The less you undermine, the quicker the recovery. There are some people who come with bowl-shaped necks, and they have big submandibular glands and a thick neck. But you can’t do a mini-lift on them. And if you do, you’re really wasting their time and your time. So the spectrum is from mini-lift to actually full-neck contouring with removal of what we call the platysmal fat and, underneath the platysma fat, removal of these glands called submandibular glands. There’s these big, thick muscles called digastric muscles.

So, on some people, I’ll actually remove part of the digastric muscle, remove part of the submandibular gland, remove part of that submandibular fat, and then suture this platysmal muscle. And they can go from kind of a bowl-shaped neck where the chin meets their chest to a very contoured, defined neck.

Interviewer: So what are the age ranges of these…like these mini-lifts?

Dr. Chasan: Yeah, most people, I would say in the late 40s is when they start doing mini-lifts. Usually, eyelids and brow lifts are in the late 30s and early 40s and then mini-lifts, in the late 40s, 50s, 60s, even into the 70s.

Interviewer: Okay. And how many years younger can you make somebody look with some of these?

Dr. Chasan: It really depends on…

Interviewer: What do you hear?

Dr. Chasan: It depends on your anatomy.

Interviewer: Like 10 years younger, 15 years younger?

Dr. Chasan: I would say 10 to 15. And it really depends on how fit they are. I always tell patients the best thing for your skin is cardio, avoiding sun, avoiding smoking, and cardio. So if somebody does that and lives a healthy lifestyle, yeah, they can look 15 years younger. You know, funny you should mention that. I just did a lady. And it surprised me how good she did. She’s actually my age. She was a heavy smoker. She was a patient of mine, I don’t know, 12 years ago. And she came back for a facelift. And she looked pretty bad, a lot of sun damage, a lot of smoking. And I just did her facelift about three weeks ago. And, honest to God, now, this is unusual, but she looks about 20 years younger.

Interviewer: Is that right?

Dr. Chasan: Yeah. It’s actually quite impressive transformation.

Interviewer: Now, what are the fears patients have, because I feel like I could spot a facelift 20 yards away?

Dr. Chasan: That’s their fear. So for brow lifts, every one of them says, “I don’t wanna look like a deer in the headlights,” okay, and that, you know, if I had patients that looked like that, it wouldn’t be very good for business. But we don’t see that. But, you know, you do see it. You see it.

Interviewer: That done look.

Dr. Chasan: That done look.

Interviewer: That tight done look.

Dr. Chasan: And all you have to do is see one of them, and it negates 100. The same thing with the facelift is “I don’t wanna look windblown,” right? “I don’t wanna look like that tight, windblown look.” And I usually tell people that that windblown, tight look is either one of two things, an expert surgery…so if you’re a pro at it and you are detail-oriented on how the earlobe insets, where the sideburn is, how you treat the posterior hairline so they can wear their hair up, that you’re not pulling on the skin, because skin will stretch. You’re pulling on what we call the SMAS layer, which is the superficial covering in the muscle. It’s very fibrous. It doesn’t stretch like the skin. If you do the right things, you won’t get that look. The other way is some people, you know, they’ve had five, six facelifts.

Interviewer: Really?

Dr.Chasan: After five, six facelifts, you’ll have that look. So I try to caution my patients to have a life plan on how many they’re gonna have, how long facelifts last. And if it’s done expertly, you should not be able to tell that they had a facelift.

Interviewer: Are there women out there in San Diego, they’re 60, 55, that look years younger, nobody knows they had a facelift, not even their friends, that you’ve done?

Dr. Chasan: Most of my patients. Yeah.

Interviewer: Really?

Dr. Chasan: Most of my patients.

Interviewer: So if I saw one of your patients walking down the street…

Dr. Chasan: You wouldn’t know. You shouldn’t be able to know. I’d be embarrassed if you knew. You shouldn’t.

Interviewer: So when I see somebody that looks fantastic at 55, I’m gonna think maybe that’s Dr. Chasan’s patient.